U2 star's former PA jailed for seven years

A former personal assistant to the U2 star Adam Clayton has been jailed for seven years for embezzling €2.8m (£2.2m) in what a judge labelled a crime "rooted in greed".

Carol Hawkins, 48, siphoned the guitarist's funds in pursuit of a lavish lifestyle that included racehorses, a New York apartment and designer clothes. Hawkins, who had worked for Clayton for 17 years, was convicted at the Circuit Criminal Court in Dublin on 181 counts of theft between 2004 and 2008. Judge Patrick McCartan said: "Nothing could explain away the scale of this dishonesty other than the greed in pursuit of a lavish lifestyle."